Need Some Advice...Did I Miss

[bowhunterfanatic]

Long story short I shot at a dandy buck this evening in a bean field. He was running across the field when I saw him. I tried to stop him 5-6 times bleating at the top of my lungs to little avail. He did slow from a run to a trot but I decided he wasn't gonna stop. I shot at him trotting at around 150-175 yards. The angle would have put him slightly quartering away. My gut reaction when I shot was that he was hit but probably back a ways. He went from trotting straight S across the field to running straight E at a much faster clip. I keep replaying it in my mind and can't figure out A) if I missed why he turned 90 degrees instead of continuing on his original path and B) exactly how I missed him (high low shot in front or behind him). I actually felt confident in the shot and didn't feel like I pulled it, jerked the trigger, etc. I just got the crosshairs in front of him and waited for him to run through the spot I was aiming vs swinging the rifle like you would wingshooting (if that matters any). I watched him run a couple hundred yards to exit the field and while he wasn't on a death run like one shot in the vitals I also wasn't convinced that he wasn't hurt. After waiting a while I went to search for blood and was easily able to find his track in the field and follow it to where he left the field. I never saw a speck of blood or gut matter. I chalked it up to a heartbreaking miss but I can't get over that gut feeling that I had hit him. So I guess my question is has anyone ever hit one with a rifle in the guts and not find a speck of evidence of a hit? Part of me wonders if I need to try and get a dog out just to be sure, but I'm not sure that a dog would be any help considering I found 0 evidence of a hit in the field.

 

[THE DUKE]

Sounds like miss,maybe hit in front of him that's why he turned. I've seen people out west shoot over a deer or etc to make them come closer. It's where they hear the impact of bullet.

 

[huvrman]

Sounds like a miss.

 

[DoubleRidge]

I'm hung up on him running a couple hundred yards to exit the field....coupled with no evidence of a hit...no hair or blood....but I understand that "gut feeling"....if your hunting in the area tomorrow you may go back and look in area where he exited field in the daylight....if nothing else just to give you piece of mind....and hey....if it's confirmed a clean miss....you know he's in the area....get back after him.....good luck!

 

[huvrman]

I shot at a 160 inch buck I'd been watching for months. Was sure i saw the crossbow bolt with lit lumanock go over his back as he ducked the string at 40 yards. But when I could not find the bolt in the grassy food plot, I convinced myself ( even though there wasn't any blood or hair) i must have been mistaken and the bolt was buried up in the chest cavity of the deer. I spent the next 2.5 days looking for the bolt, the deer, and taking my dog out on a lease to try to find it or its remains. Even went out at night to try to find the lumanock. I rationalized the lumanock was either in the deer or the deer had fallen over on it, explaining why I couldn't see it after dark. Well 40 hours later I got a game camera pic of half the bucks head at night. At least I knew it was alive but still could not tell if it had an arrow lodged in it somewhere. 2 weeks later that buck showed up at midnight in the same plot I shot him in, and he was perfectly fine. I never hit him. I never found my arrow either, though. Some things just can't be explained.

 

[backyardtndeer]

Sounds like a miss, especially with no blood for that far before going into cover. But, we have had a few with. 243 that did not bleed, no exit. One was a deer my youngest daughter shot last year. Deer was extremely fat, had been in our beans. She hit him good, he spun around and nearly fell as he was entering the woods, I knew he was hit. I thought I heard him crash. We found him just 35-40 yards into some thick stuff, less than 80 yards from where he was standing when she shot him. Once I rolled him over to get pics he started pouring blood. Deer was hit good. Your case the deer going that far without any blood, dunno unlikely but not impossible. Could fat temporarily plug an entry, maybe so, I think that was what happened with my daughters deer.

If you have a camera in the area, would definitely check it over the next few days. If it were me, would probably try to get back and check the area you saw him enter and do some circles from that point.

 

[Jcalder]

I shot one last week with a smokeless gun. Parker BE going roughly 2800fps. Never found blood nor hair nor guts. Found him yesterday morning as the buzzards were having a feast. If you gut shot him, and most likely what happened to me, they may or may not bleed for some time.

 

[Deer Assassin]

First reaction gut shot
Second miss